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Dec 5 Immanuel

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”(Matthew 1:23 NLT)There are several names of Christ I want to cover in the next 20 days of looking at His names. This one, Immanuel, seemed the obvious choice to start with for me. Jesus represents so many things for us (Savior, Refuge, King Lord, Helper, Counselor, Father and on and on). However, of all of those characteristics and qualities, do any make more of an impact than knowing He is with you? It matters first that He sees us, knows us and still deems being with us worth all the mess He had to go through to restore us.

When we’re in the midst of our darkest night, feel misunderstood and all alone, what we really want to know isn’t…why. What we really want to know is that God sees us, He sees our problems and He cares about us. Before Jesus was born, the angel told his father, Joseph, that Jesus would be called Immanuel, meaning God is with us. The Infinite willing to live with the finite. He left Heaven, the full time Presence of His Father, God Almighty. Sometimes I try to slow down and consider what Jesus had seen before He became a baby in a manger, what He knew and yet, Jesus was still willing to come live among us. Jesus is fully God, fully man, the fulfillment of every prophecy and He is always by our side, never leaving us or allowing anything to separate us from His love. I pray we remember in our hurry, in our challenge, in our joy and in all our moments – He is God…with…us!